John Clay’s Sidelines

(Photo John Clay)

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

Ray Ratto writes for CBS SportsLine that Bob Kngiht was a little late: “Does this invalidate his points at the Hall of Fame? No, of course not. His principles speech is always on point. It is, however, a lot like going to a meeting of a mob family and complaining about rampant lawbreaking. You’re speaking about people who long ago figured out the price of a soul and use that number when amortizing its costs, and wondering aloud why they aren’t nicer people. They’re not, and in many cases they never were. They just crossed more lines with less care for the punishment, because there is none and never has been.”

Gary Parrish of CBS SportsLine says UK fans will have to live with this: “And this is how it’s going to be forever, UK fans, and why it was clear — even before Knight said what he said — that any success Calipari has going forward will be tainted regardless of whether it’s really tainted. Until the day he retires, the majority of observers will believe, fair or not, that every recruit Calipari gets is a product of his relationship with William Wesley even if Worldwide Wes has never met the recruit. All SATs will be assumed fake even if they’re legit, all future pros will supposedly have agents even if they do not.”

Mike DeCourcy says Knight got it wrong: “Knight always contended too many in the media wrote or talked about things they didn’t know or understand. Now he has done the same. The current Kentucky coach - yes, we know his name, John Calipari - did previously work at Massachusetts and Memphis, and both of those schools wound up facing NCAA sanctions for incidents that occurred while he coached there. However, Calipari was not implicated in either circumstance.”

Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal takes a different view of Knight’s comments: “Knight could talk about the way Kentucky essentially bought Memphis’ recruiting class for $32 million. He could talk about the way Calipari rigged the recruits’ letters of intent so they wouldn’t actually be bound to the school. He could point out that Calipari used that Memphis recruiting class to escape NCAA sanctions he knew were coming. He could say the things Dick Vitale and the rest don’t have the guts or objectivity to say.”

My column calling Bob Knight a washed-up bully, among other things: “Before a rapt audience Thursday night, Knight tried to make it sound as though he was the one too good for the game, when actually the game’s grown too good for him. The days of coaches abusively treating players and fans and administrators is coming to a close. Ask Mark Mangino, the former football coach at Kansas. He, too, has some time on his hands.”

Jerry Tipton of the H-L on John Calipari shrugging off Bob Knight’s comments: ” John Calipari respectfully disagreed Friday with Hall of Famer Bob Knight, who questioned the Kentucky coach’s integrity the day before. At a fund-raiser for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on Thursday, Knight singled out Calipari as an example of how coaching integrity was in decline.”

Rex Chapman

Mike Fields of the Herald-Leader on Rex Chapman’s son: “Has he given his son advice on how to deal with the distractions? ‘Zeke’s grown up around basketball,’ Rex said. ;He was running around the locker room when I was playing in Phoenix (with the Suns), so he’s been around the game and pretty good players as long as he can remember.’”

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on Calipari’s reaction to Knight: “Contrary to Knight’s comments, Massachusetts was not placed on NCAA probation, UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy noted on Friday, adding that Memphis is appealing the NCAA’s ruling on the 2008 Final Four. Calipari said that he got up to go to Mass on Friday morning and had about 100 text messages about Knight’s comments.”

Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger thought Calipari was right in his response: “Give Kentucky coach John Calipari credit for doing the right thing and refusing to lower himself to Bob Knight’s level.”

Ben Smith of the Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette says intergrity is passe: “Knight never had any qualms about that dubious aspect; his last few seasons at Texas Tech, he was so logo’ed up he looked like Jimmie Johnson. So in a way he was as culpable as anyone else for the environment he so rightly decries. To give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he recognized that, and stepping away from coaching was his reaction to it. Certainly he’s astute enough to recognize that college athletics at the Division I level are now wholly a profit-first, everything-else-second enterprise for the schools involved.”

With the Louisville women playing UK on Sunday, Jennifer Smith of the H-L writes on Louisville’s Gwen Rucker: “Rucker, who also starred at Henry Clay in volleyball and basketball, will return to her Lexington hometown Sunday to play against Kentucky. She knows most people doubted whether she could excel at two sports while at Louisville.”

Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches on Morgan Newton as bowl starter: “Rich Brooks’ comments following Friday night’s practice at the Nutter Field House seemed to indicate that true freshman Morgan Newton, who has started seven games as Hartline’s replacement, will likely get the nod against Clemson.”

Metz Camfield of the Kentucky Kernel on Calipari vs. Knight: “When the Cats played Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., in front of 17,316 fans, chants of “S-A-T, S-A-T” could be heard from the stands in reference to Rose’s invalid standardized test scores, and “Cal’s a cheater.” Still, Calipari, personally, has never gotten in trouble with the NCAA. While his team’s have, and the Final Fours have been vacated, Calipari hasn’t been named directly in the reports.”

Wildcat Blue Blog does a little Knight history: “First off, Bobby Knight was fortunate to have coached in an era before the internet. Technically, the internet was in use during Knight’s 1997 incident with Neil Reid but it was a different medium then. If the above grainy picture of an enraged Knight with his hand gripped around the neck of Reid right over that Indiana logo happened say 10 years later, the outrage from bloggers and the public would have led to a lifetime ban and possibly Knight facing charges.”

A Sea of Blue thinks Knight knocked himself out: “It’s tempting to repeat old tales of Bob Knight’s reprehensible behavior while coach at Indiana and elsewhere, but I’m not going to. I actually like Bob Knight, despite the fact that some of his utterances are of the quality that one must usually obtain from the likes of Britney Spears or Courtney Love. You have to take the moronic and the bad with the the good when it comes to The General.”

Tom Leach talks to Chris Dortch of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

Interview with UK 2011 target Quincy Miller. (Hat tip Bluegrass State Basketball.)

Wildcat Wrap thought Calipari showed class: “Since when was recruiting the most talented players “doing it the wrong way”? Since when was it a bad thing to help kids reach their dreams of playing in the NBA and winning with the best of talent? John Calipari runs a players-first program where he truly believes that kids should have fun and enjoy playing basketball together as a family. His players love him and he loves his players and helps them achieve their dreams more effectively than any coach in the college game.”

Kentucky Sports Radio takes it hard over Austin Collinsworth: “Austin Collinsworth committed to Notre Dame, the next in a long line of white Irish receivers who can lose to Navy.”

Someone named Danny K of Bleacher Report gives Knight kudos: “Knight could not be more right when he criticized the hypocrisy of the NCAA for allowing coaches like Calipari to abandon schools after leaving them crippled with scandal, and taking to bank $4 million paydays while his former players were forbidden from similarly switching schools without having to sit out a year.”

Ira Combs of Kentucky Sports Network writes on Calipari’s winning ways: “Now that Cal’s Cats have passed the top ten test of North Carolina, the bright lights and big city test of New York and UConn and the road test of those pesky, overachieveing Hoosiers in Bloomington, Indiana juiced up by a hostile environment it’s time to hit the books for some real test of the classroom variety.”

Straitpinkie remembers that there’s a UK game today: “Head Coach Dave Loos has turned the Austin Peay program into a model of consistency. Year in and year out, they are a team to deal with in the OVC. In fact, they have finished in the top five of the regular season standings the last seven seasons. The Governors are only 11 games into their season but it has been a busy one for Loos. He recorded his 400th victory against Southeast Missouri and then in their win against Ohio, he became the all-time winningest coach in OVC history.”

Inner Circle previews Austin Peay: “APSU is lead in scoring by Anthony Campbell who is averaging 15.3 points-per-game to go along with 4.9 rebounds-per-contest. The Governors also place Wes Channels in double-figures scoring with a 14.1 point-per-game average. Austin Peay is led in rebounding by John Fraley who is pulling down 6.9 boards-per-game.”